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  • Happy New Year for 2018 (and another sneak peek)

    by
    Tony_Hilliam
    Published on January 12th, 2018 01:23 AM
    17 Comments Comments
    It's a new year and we're making great progress putting together all the new systems that will transform Trainz into a truly realistic simulation.



    For more information on future Trainz development be sure to keep up-to-date at http://www.trainzportal.com and have your say at the forums at: https://forums.auran.com/trainz/content.php
    Comments 17 Comments
    1. RailFan500CA's Avatar
      RailFan500CA - January 12th, 2018, 07:45 AM
      This looks great... I think my PC will be struggling on low settings with how much this version of Trainz has... Keep up the good work.
    1. ClintClassic's Avatar
      ClintClassic - January 12th, 2018, 03:15 PM
      Yes... awesome Tony!!! However a new computer or GPU for sure!
    1. Chadd04's Avatar
      Chadd04 - January 12th, 2018, 05:06 PM
      How about maybe getting other things fixed first. Like the ability to tab in and out of full screen?
    1. dangavel's Avatar
      dangavel - January 12th, 2018, 07:28 PM
      [QUOTE=Chadd04;1650146]How about maybe getting other things fixed first. Like the ability to tab in and out of full screen?[/QUOT

      I have to agree , after spending about 3 hours trying to blend an irrigation ditch into surrounding terrain and not doing it to my satisfaction due to the size of surveyor tool ( despite the most delicate manipulation, some of the terrain mesh will NOT bend into the desired shape ) I could not give a hoot as how realistic the interiors of carriages are , because the basic tools to make the surrounding countryside look completely realistic ( unless one has advanced 3d skills which i don't) just aren't there.

      Its like using a 6 inch brush to paint details on the Mona Lisa. Accurate terrain manipulation has always been a dream on this app for us lesser modellers .

      Likewise the ability of the program to select assets close to each other has much to be desired, despite an item not being selected , the persistence of the app to want to select it over the asset actually being moved is annoying to the extreme and wastes many hours.

      If you cant even fix the built in rulers after many attempts why would we be over the moon about fancy features that are eye candy but ultimately not going to help route builders or asset makers?

      The more complex making items is going to get, the less likely that people are going to want to begin to learn as its so intimidating. I've made a fair few textures, but I doubt they will work in the new version of trainz and the thought of changing all of those to conform with new demands just makes me want to give up.
    1. Roy3b3's Avatar
      Roy3b3 - January 12th, 2018, 11:17 PM
      I think it looks wonderful Tony. The work that goes into Trainz by yourself and your supportive team is greatly appreciated by the majority of all 'Trainzers'.

      The positive changes we've seen in Trainz over the years is a credit to N3V, and we are happy to see and enjoy what is in store for us.

      There will always be 'knockers' of any changes that are made, however, to progress in any industry, then 'acceptance of change' has to take place.

      I prefer to move ahead, learning new ideas and skills on the way.

      Keep it up guys!

      Cheers,
      Roy
    1. Tony_Hilliam's Avatar
      Tony_Hilliam - January 13th, 2018, 12:17 AM
      dangavel - are you using a 10m grid or 5m grid? A 5m grid gives you 4x the fine-tuning capability when painting, but at a significant performance cost and size on disk cost.

      If we went to say a 1m grid, this would give you 25x more fine-tuning capability, but most hardware wouldn;t cope with the performance cost nor have a large enough hard drive for the data.

      Instead, the solution is (i) streaming and (ii) new methodologies to create the terrain grid. Streaming we're working on and a new system for terrain is on the list but not any time soon.

      There aren't any current tasks relating to rulers, but I think we gixed a couple late last year - please submit a bug report regarding any bugs with rulers.

      Last but not least, fixing things is relatively straight forward if we know exactly what the problem is. Fixing things such as "ruler are broken" is impossible, because typing the code "IF Rulers broken > FIX" just doesn't seem to work. In all seriousness, quite often, things like rulers not performing as you expect relate to the version the original map was created in, the height of the terrain and potentially other factors too. We need to narrow down the issue in order to fix it.
    1. celje's Avatar
      celje - January 13th, 2018, 04:29 AM
      Yes , it's very good looking. If you will in TS18 put some novelty about functionality too ( e.g. live, better looking passengers, lighting, maybe new industry chain- truck load fright in railway warehouse and deliver it to store etc.) then everything would be marvelous.

      About rulers i believe that you think rules, please read this thread

      Quote Originally Posted by Tony_Hilliam View Post
      There aren't any current tasks relating to rulers, but I think we gixed a couple late last year - please submit a bug report regarding any bugs with rulers.
      AI Drivers act different now.

      TANE after SP2hf1 simply don't obey the driver command

      regards
      celje
    1. dangavel's Avatar
      dangavel - January 13th, 2018, 06:43 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by Tony_Hilliam View Post
      dangavel - are you using a 10m grid or 5m grid? A 5m grid gives you 4x the fine-tuning capability when painting, but at a significant performance cost and size on disk cost.

      If we went to say a 1m grid, this would give you 25x more fine-tuning capability, but most hardware wouldn;t cope with the performance cost nor have a large enough hard drive for the data.

      Instead, the solution is (i) streaming and (ii) new methodologies to create the terrain grid. Streaming we're working on and a new system for terrain is on the list but not any time soon.

      There aren't any current tasks relating to rulers, but I think we gixed a couple late last year - please submit a bug report regarding any bugs with rulers.

      Last but not least, fixing things is relatively straight forward if we know exactly what the problem is. Fixing things such as "ruler are broken" is impossible, because typing the code "IF Rulers broken > FIX" just doesn't seem to work. In all seriousness, quite often, things like rulers not performing as you expect relate to the version the original map was created in, the height of the terrain and potentially other factors too. We need to narrow down the issue in order to fix it.
      Well Tony, i DID submit the issues with rulers, with details . In the last case, it appeared to be height related but they still disappear regularly and then return at any time, regardless of height , I've never been asked to submit the route for you to find out why it is a problem and when I asked if this could be done I wasn't given any answer.

      in fact I've submitted tickets re this issue for pretty much every version of TANE that has come out , and you didn't fix it, I've either been told you can't replicate it or that in the case of Yosemite it was " a known issue " and the implication was, grin and bear it, it's been stuffed in every version of TANE I've used so far and it's made things much more difficult when trying to measure up items in game for model builders to translate into assets.

      look , I understand your need to introduce new features, you have a business to run and you have to attract new customers, but please don't underplay the criticisms of loyal customers, about issues thst have existed for a long time and which haven't been addressed . If you read the columns there are people who think that their concerns are being sidelined in order to progress I am far from being alone .

      so far every single bug fix I have submitted to you has resulted in zero fixes for me, your tech never ever says he's sorry he can't help and that tends to make me really feel like the concerns are just not important to him , perhaps just expressing a regret ,even if it's not genuine , might make me feel that the person on the other end actually does give a toss about the problems some of us making routes have when trying to use the software.

      when we have people like Jango lamenting the fact that all the hard work they did on a route has to be redone to conform to new verions of the software then I KNOW there are problems , which you may not want to acknowledge, but I would like you to realise that many of us stay with trainz despite all the issues , although sometimes I think We must be totally nuts to do so.
    1. dangavel's Avatar
      dangavel - January 13th, 2018, 06:53 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by Roy3b3 View Post
      I think it looks wonderful Tony. The work that goes into Trainz by yourself and your supportive team is greatly appreciated by the majority of all 'Trainzers'.

      The positive changes we've seen in Trainz over the years is a credit to N3V, and we are happy to see and enjoy what is in store for us.

      There will always be 'knockers' of any changes that are made, however, to progress in any industry, then 'acceptance of change' has to take place.

      I prefer to move ahead, learning new ideas and skills on the way.

      Keep it up guys!

      Cheers,
      Roy
      So , if you found that the new version has messed up hundreds of assets or tuned them into payware you' d be happy to move on and learn new skills and ideas? Or if a feature that been round for many years has ruined 30 miles of splines and when you ask why it's never been fixed you receive no rely from support apart form " thst the way it is " you'd be pleased ?
      At the very least I would expect the response ," sorry you had this issue, we will do our best to fix it " wouldn't you ?
    1. shaneturner12's Avatar
      shaneturner12 - January 13th, 2018, 10:34 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by Chadd04 View Post
      How about maybe getting other things fixed first. Like the ability to tab in and out of full screen?
      That's actually partly down to the graphics drivers as some have problems doing that with some programs that offer both windowed and full screen (not just Trainz).

      Shane
    1. Khemore's Avatar
      Khemore - January 14th, 2018, 01:30 PM
      Looks Really great! Good job I hope u devs also remember game optimisations, Because the game can be really laggy, even though i have an extreamly powerfull computer! But im not writing to complain i really love the game But would be nice with smooth running game

      Best regards.
      Khemore
    1. pdkoester's Avatar
      pdkoester - January 14th, 2018, 06:09 PM
      Yeah, that is a more detailed interior than usually found, this will make your GPU more hungry, too.

    1. Railhead001's Avatar
      Railhead001 - January 15th, 2018, 08:56 PM
      Lovely graphics but it would be nice if you fixed the bugs with the current version namely the "timing out" issue at signals waiting for other trains to clear that I submitted previously.........
    1. webbk's Avatar
      webbk - January 16th, 2018, 06:07 PM
      I like the detail. Is it possible to add an option to bank curves, since Japan is well known for it?
    1. shaneturner12's Avatar
      shaneturner12 - January 16th, 2018, 06:10 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by webbk View Post
      I like the detail. Is it possible to add an option to bank curves, since Japan is well known for it?
      If you haven't already, it might be worth seeing if superelevation helps which T:ANE already has (although I don't know whether this in-development version has or not).

      Shane
    1. wayneshorter1965's Avatar
      wayneshorter1965 - January 21st, 2018, 09:47 PM
      Progress looks good, just curious as to which SpeedTree version will be used in this new Trainz?
    1. dangavel's Avatar
      dangavel - February 9th, 2018, 04:35 AM
      Ok, so far ive been a sceptic regarding a new release but I've been looking at mac graphic cards options with more vram to make sp2. run a bit faster , unfortunately,even with new AMD cards natively supported on the mac performance with TANE in general is pretty ordinary .

      BUT I did notice here http://barefeats.com/vega_resolve.html that even quite elderly cards perform much better under metal ( eg GTX 680 performs pretty much as well as the RX 580 - although much worse than GTX 1070, which is not natively supported and if its anything like the GTX 970, is a slug in MAC OSX using trainz)

      . . . my question is, will the next version of trainz be better optimized to take advantage of metal and if it does , will it only be effective when using high Sierra ? this is a make or break for me regarding upgrading to the new version and probably would be for all Mac users, its only worth it if there are cards which will run it effectively and at a reasonable price factor.